Most of the time what people really want to know is:  How can I make the kind of money all those gurus talk about?

Well, the first thing that you need to know is that many of those internet marketing gurus aren’t being completely honest about their income, the size of their lists, or their products.  I’m sure you already knew that — after all, it’s hard to take anyone at their word anymore, especially online.

But here’s the other thing you need to know about a lot of internet marketers… for some, the major source of their income doesn’t actually come from selling their internet marketing products (or any products for that matter) online .  Let me explain…

A LOT of Internet Marketing Gurus Are MLM’ers Too!

Would it surprise you to know that a lot of those internet marketing gurus who try to sell you all kinds of marketing products actually make the majority of their income through network marketing? Some of them actually started in network marketing and then developed their internet marketing products later to sell to their downlines and then to the public.

I know that’s hard for some people to believe — network marketing — really?

After all, network marketing has gotten a really bad reputation over the last several years.  But I actually have proof that internet marketing gurus make a substantial part of their income from network marketing… Click here for proof.

See any marketing names that you recognize? How about Jim Daniels, Yanik Silver, Rosalind Gardner, Frank Kern, Terry Dean, Bryan Kumar, and Mike Chen?  Several years ago I was even approached by Corey Rudl about a MLM opportunity – even though he flatly denied it to his internet marketing followers.

So why do so many internet marketers dabble in network marketing as well?

Because there’s HUGE money in network marketing!

In fact, network marketing is exactly like affiliate marketing in a lot of ways… the only REAL difference is that network marketers get paid down several levels for their efforts, resulting in more income, while affiliate marketers only get paid on one or two levels.

Network marketing is a GOLD MINE if you know how to do it!

Should You Follow In The Guru’s Footsteps?

Like any other home based business, some will succeed and some will fail… But one of the real benefits of network marketing over just about any other home business is the possibility of absolutely HUGE paydays.  You just can’t make as much money as quickly in any other business model.

But that’s not the only reason that I like network marketing as part of my own business.

For me, the best thing about network marketing is that I can mentor, coach, and train people in their home businesses for FREE.

Let me explain… In a traditional coaching, mentoring, or training career, the coach earns their living from charging clients an hourly fee.   Frankly, I never liked the idea of charging by the hour. I always found it restrictive and uncomfortable because some clients need a lot more attention than others. …And you can’t always reach the people who need you most because they can’t afford to spend $300 per hour on this kind of service.

But now I can provide unlimited personalized coaching, mentoring, and training, centered around an EXTREMELY lucrative home business model, to people who really need the help and support, and EVERYBODY WINS!

• I get to help people to develop a successful home business that can absolutely change their lives… This is an AWESOME way to earn a living!
• The people I coach get REAL help and training from an expert so that they have a REAL chance to make it in home business and turn their lives around.

For me it’s a win/win situation.

But how do you know if it’s right for you?  Here are the basic reasons why you might want to consider getting into network marketing:

1. You’d like to supplement your current home business income.
2. You’d like to bump your income to the next level.
3. You’re struggling trying to make it with affiliate marketing.
4. You really need a coach/trainer to help you make it.
5. You’ve never had a home business before and you don’t know what to do.
6. You don’t know anything about marketing or internet marketing.
7. You’re already an expert and want the chance to help others reach your level of income.

Still don’t know if network marketing might be your thing?  That’s okay… I was skeptical at first too.

But the network marketing business model is built in such a way that you can actually test-run it for a month or two to see if you like it.  If you don’t like it — move on to something else.  There are tons of network marketing companies out there, so you’re bound to find one that will work for you and your lifestyle.

After all, network marketing seems to be the “best kept secret” of many successful internet marketing gurus — maybe it’s worth looking into.

Learn more about my FREE coaching program… Click here!

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Of course she was absolutely certain that the affiliate program was ripping her off — She’d actually made sales but they weren’t credited to her affiliate account.

Maybe that was true in her case, I don’t know, but there are also other factors that could explain here lack of affiliate sales.

1.  Does the affiliate sales page convert?

This is probably the biggest thing that all affiliates should consider before joining because it will have the biggest impact on your bottom line.   Does the sales page for the affiliate product that you want to promote have a good conversion rate?  In other words, how many people who click over to the sales page actually buy the product?

Believe it or not, conversion rates average around 2%… but I’ve see affiliate sales pages converting at much, much less.  It’s not unusual to find affiliate conversion rates in the tank at 0.01%.

2.  Does the sales page offer “untracked” sales?

Sometimes an affiliate sales page offers prospects other forms of payment that can’t be tracked to the affiliate who referred them.

For example, if a prospect can order by 800 number, then the affiliate may not get credit for sales they’ve referred who purchased through that toll free number.

I’ve seen a lot of Clickbank merchants do this kind of bait and switch thing to affiliates… let me explain.

The merchant joins Clickbank and sells one of their products through them.  Once they’re in the Clickbank marketplace and affiliates start promoting them, the merchant switches over to take payments through PayPal, phone, or another payment system and cuts the affiliate out of the sales.

3.  Is your advertising targeting the right market?

This is what I think happened to my coaching client… she was getting plenty of clicks, but they weren’t people who were interested in actually buying the product she was advertising.

It’s easy, especially with pay-per-click, to get a lot of people clicking through your ad.  All you have to do is word the ad so that it provokes a lot of clicks.

But clicks aren’t what really matters in a pay-per-click campaign… quality clicks are what matter.

That’s why most PPC experts use negative qualifiers and precise information to weed out all the tire-kickers.  Once you do that and specifically target who will see your ad, you’ll find that the quality of your clicks and your return on investment (ROI) improves tremendously.  (If you want to learn more about PPC, then I highly recommend The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords!)

In the end, there are probably lots of reasons why some affiliate products don’t sell, but these are the most common problems that affiliates face.

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It doesn’t matter how great the features are, how awesome your marketing message, or even if your product has all the bells and whistles.  It doesn’t even matter what your industry is… At the end of the day, your customers all buy some variation of one of these things:

1. Make more money
2. Save more time
3. Make them feel better about themselves
4. Avoid the frustration of doing things they don’t want or like to do
5. Saving or avoid losing money in the future

So now that you know that your customers fit into one of these categories, how can you use that to your advantage?

Easy… Focus all your energy on selling one of these key points in all your copywriting and keep these five categories in mind as you create new products.

Of course, there are a lot of other factors involved in the entire sales process, but keeping an eye on these five categories and integrating this basic knowledge into your business plan will ultimately help you to make more sales and create products and services that address a need in your industry.

And there’s your quick tip for today… there are really only 5 things that people buy.

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There’s really no secret.

I’ve been practicing attraction marketing for years in my own business.  If you’re successful, I bet you have too.

So here’s the big secret… Attraction marketing is any marketing strategy designed to “attract” people who are interested in your products, services, or business to you or your website like a magnet.

Frankly, I think attraction marketing and pre-selling are pretty much the same thing.

The idea is that you don’t want to SELL people your wares.  People hate to be “sold,” but they love to buy stuff when it hits their hot buttons and the buying experience is pleasurable.

In my mind, attraction marketing really comes in two parts… attracting interested people and enticing them to buy.  Let’s talk about each one separately.

1.  Attracting Interested People

The key to making a good living with your business, no matter what business you’re in, is to get your business in front of people who are interested in buying what you have to offer.  The more interested people who see what you’ve got, the more money you’re going to make — simple as that.

In the online world, there are lots and lots of easy ways to do that:

• Write great keyword rich content that attracts interested people through search engines.
• Write articles that will interest your target audience.
• Create videos that will attract interested people.
• Offer a free ebook, ecourse, or report to your target audience (lead capture).
• Advertise your free offer, rather than your products, services, or business.

You want to help interested people find you, but you don’t want to sell them.

You can practice attraction marketing in the offline world as well:

• Advertise a free offer on your website in newpapers, signs, flyers, billboards, etc.
• Create and advertise a recorded message about your business or products.
• Put a sign on your car.
• Use your own products publicly.

The essence of attraction marketing is that you want to give people who are interested in your products, services, or business a reason to be attracted to you and do it in a completely non-threatening way.

2.  Enticing People To Buy

First of all, you’ve got to get the dollar signs out of your eyes.  Too many people operate their business like a used car salesman.

Let me draw you a picture and you’ll see what I mean.

As you’re driving up on a car lot, you notice a group of salesmen sitting together near the entrance.  As your car turns in, all the salesmen turn towards you and you see the cold glint of dollar signs in their eyes.

You flinch just a little, but still find a parking spot and stop the car.

As you get out of the car, you notice that the salesmen are urgently talking amongst themselves until one of them puts on one of those fake smiles and starts walking towards you while the others quickly disperse.

“Hey what kind of car are we looking to buy today?”

YUK!  I hate that so much that I actually refuse to talk to sales people and make my husband deal with them.

No one likes to be treated that way in any situation.

But if you’re hard selling everyone who visits your website, then you’re acting like that money-hungry used car salesman and driving potential customers away.

You’ve heard it before, people buy from other people that they like and trust.

Your job is to give people the things that will attract them to your business, build a relationship with them, and then gently recommend your products, services, or business when they show an interest.

That’s the essence of attraction marketing.

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The Google Slap

Let me lay out my story for you.

I’ve been running Google Adwords campaigns for years from the same account, for several different niche websites.  I’ve never had a problem with them — I’ve always diligently followed the rules:

1. No squeeze pages.
2. Content-based landing pages.
3. Keywords matching the landing pages.

In fact, the majority of my landing pages have always been plain old article pages directly from my website — nothing fancy.

I had a pretty good thing going here… then I made a silly mistake.

For some reason, I got in a hurry and didn’t set up a proper article-type page for a new campaign that I started.  Instead, it was a php redirect to an affiliate sales page.  It ran for about six weeks and I made a killing with it — then Google caught it.

My sales plumetted and it didn’t take very long to figure out that I had been the victim of the dreaded Google Slap!

Every one of my landing pages in every campaign I was running (not just the offending campaign) carried a 1/10 rating.  That means that NONE of my campaigns were showing for any domain or product I was promoting through Google Adwords.

Further investigation revealed that Google also dropped my pagerank for iMarketingWatch.com site from a PR3 or PR4 to a PR1.

I immediately deleted the offending ads and hoped that Google would return my “good” campaigns to their normal 7/10-5/10 ratings.  Days went by and there was no change in my account status.

Then I deleted ALL my campaigns and started over fresh with brand new campaigns that went to articles that I have running on my blogs on other domains.  They were only designed to generate traffic, not sales, but Google ranked them at a 1/10 too, making it impossible to run the campaigns.

I repeatedly emailed Google to see if they would review my account, see that I was following the rules, and maybe stop punishing me for my one error in all these years.  They never answered my questions.

They did manage to send me an automated survey to see if I was satisfied with customer service however.

Google Slap experts claim that once you’ve been slapped you should get rid of the offending domain and start over with a new domain.  They claim that once you’ve been slapped, your site can never recover and make it back into Google’s good graces.  I haven’t decided if I want to dump iMarketingWatch.com and start over or not.  I sure hate to start over!

Apparently, you can never use the Google Adwords account that’s been slapped again either.

I deleted my account over the weekend and moved all my advertising dollars over to Yahoo.

I don’t know if starting a new account at Google would allow me to continue working with Adwords, but I’ve heard horror stories about Google tracking your IP or credit card and giving you the old Google Slap again on your new account.

Frankly, I’m not too inclined to give Google a second chance, despite it’s enormous search engine market share.  At Yahoo I’m paying less money per click and getting keywords that I would never be able to afford at Google — even before the Google Slap.

Although Yahoo generates a lot fewer impressions than Google, Yahoo seems to remember that advertisers are customers and they treat them like customers.

Obviously, Google doesn’t really care about it’s customers.  Rather than being punitive, they could easily just disable the offending campaigns for any advertiser – but they choose to brutally punish advertisers instead.

I guess you can do whatever you want when you’re the 800 lb. Gorilla.

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The problem with SMM is that it can also be VERY time-consuming if you don’t develop a plan of attack.

That’s where Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day comes in to the picture!

Product Description

If the idea of starting a social media marketing campaign overwhelms you, the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results.  Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day.  In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measurements and how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and user-generated content sharing sites like YouTube.

Develop an Integrated, Successful Social Media Strategy

A Step-by-Step Guide

Put the buzz about your business to work for you. This comprehensive, perfectly paced guide will teach you how to make social media an active part of your marketing plan so that you can turn customer conversations about your brand, product, service, and company into a sustainable competitive advantage. Learn how you can tap the Social Web and amplify your current marketing efforts by listening and participating in conversations that drive measurable results.

• Develop and effectively pitch a successful social media campaign inside your company
• Learn how to become a genuine Social Web participant
• Build a map of your key conversation-generators as you evaluate every point of contact between you and your customers
• Get to the sweet spot of social media marketing—the consideration phase of the purchase funnel
• Leverage all the tools available—blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, video and photo sharing, and more
• Use social media measurement tools, including the Net Promoter score, and apply metrics from platforms such as Bazaarvoice, BlogPulse, and Cymfony
• Learn best practices for launching your social media program and measuring the results

You’ll also find:

• A comprehensive look from the savvy marketer’s perspective at social sites and services—MySpace, Facebook®, LinkedIn®, and Twitter, along with YouTube, Seesmic, Eventful, and FriendFeed
• Straightforward tools for building social media into your current marketing program
• Real-world case studies that illustrate successes to learn from and mistakes to avoid

Read More About Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day

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Who Is Talking About You?

Master the art of word of mouth marketing with this fun, practical, hands-on guide.

With straightforward advice and humor, marketing expert Andy Sernovitz will show you how the world’s most respected and profitable companies get their best customers for free through the power of word of mouth.

Learn the five essential steps that make word of mouth work and everything you need to get started using them.  Understand the real purpose of blogs, communities, viral email, evangelists, and buzz – when to use them and how simple it is to make them work.

Learn what sparks the irrepressible enthusiasm of Apple and TiVo fans.  Understand why everyone is talking about a certain restaurant, car, band, or dry cleaner — and why other businesses and products are ignored.  Discover why some products become huge successes without a penny of promotion — and why some multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns fail to get noticed.

Open your eyes to a new way of doing business that honest marketing makes more money, because customers who trust you will talk about you.  Learn how to be the remarkable company that people want to share with their friends.

Reviews From Real People

“A quick, practical, and extremely useful guide to word of mouth marketing.”

— Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz

“As I read through Word of Mouth Marketing I felt, more than anything else, relieved. Relieved that we finally have a marketing author who understands the simplicity (and complexity) of this business. This one’s worth your time.”

— Jonah Bloom, Executive Editor, Advertising Age

“It’s brief. It’s elementary. It’s obvious. But the Truth often is. Read this book to relearn what you always knew just in time for it to change your business life.”

— Bob Garfield, Host, NPR’s On The Media

“No one knows word of mouth (the good, the bad, and the measurable) better than Andy Sernovitz.”

— Peter Fader, Professor, Wharton School of Business

“A primer chock full of great stories, tips, and exercises to make you a better word of mouth marketer, no matter what size company you work for. Read it, and you will increase your influence with your customers, and make yourself more influential in your company.”

— Ed Keller and Jon Berry, the Keller Fay Group, authors of The Influentials

Buy Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

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• A headline must capture the attention of your prospect.
• A headline must tell your prospect what’s in it for him.
• A headline must deliver a complete, immediately understandable message.
• A headline must pull the prospect into the copy… compelling him to keep reading.

In essence, a headline should motivate your prospect to respond.

In fact, headlines are soooo important that I have a swipe file of really great headlines that I come across.  I keep a swipe file so that I can go back and refer to those headlines and use them as headline starters when it’s time for me to create my own promotional materials.

Here are 10 headline starters from my own swipe file:

• The Untold Secrets To Making…
• Is Your (Insert Topic) Being Threatened?
• 7 Amazing Strategies to…Add New
• Do You Wish There Was An Easier Way To…
• 3 Direct Reasons Why You’ll Be Kicking Yourself if You Don’t…
• Instant Strategies Anyone Can Use To…
• The 5 Ugly Lies About…
• How I (Insert Benefit) In Record Time…
• Watch this ‘shocking’ play-by-play underground video…
• Why Aren’t You…?

If you’re interested in getting more great headlines as well as swipe files for other parts of your promotional material, then I highly recommend My Instant Swipe File.

Or feel free to visit my full review of My Instant Swipe File.

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If you never really thought about being at war when it comes to your blog and trying to get notices among the millions of other blogs on the planet, then you’ve got to check out this entertaining and enlightening post from Copyblogger.

If you stop and think about it, you’re in a battle for visitors, subscribers, and customers… and you’re fighting all those battles at the same time.

Want to actually start waging war and winning those battles? Check out the link below and play to win:

Your Blog vs. The World: 7 Steps To Winning The War for Attention

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